You’re Kidding … Peter Graves?

For review, the results of a recent Adweek poll on the topic of the believability of spokespersons among various age groups. The results paint an interesting picture.

Not terribly surprising is the fact that 18-34 year-olds disbelieve everyone pretty much equally.

In the “eligible for a reverse mortgage” crowd, business leaders hold more sway than celebrities. This is interesting because traditionally, reverse mortgage lenders have relied heavily on actors (James Garner, Robert Wagner and most recently Peter Graves*) and former political figures (Jack Kemp) as spokesmen.

It has always been my opinion that this kind of endorsement was cheap and one of the dumbest ways to market the reverse mortgage product. The fact is, if you need a reverse mortgage, it sells itself. And no celebrity, musician, senator or anybody else in the world is going to sell a reverse mortgage to someone who doesn’t need one… or who is too afraid to get one.

And that’s the real issue: educating those who need them, but who are too afraid to get them. The problem with most marketers today is their refusal to walk in someone else’s shoes for a little while.

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*I guess that was as close as they could get to a “Larry Grimm” or a “Ronald Reaper”.